Quotes

High Evolutionary (Early)

“But this talk of a demon from the bowels of the Earth gets tedious ! I’m a scientist, confound it ! Demons just don’t fit into the rational scheme of the Universe !”

“I’ve been wounded too severely. There is no more hope. The High Evolutionary is dying ! And yet.. perhaps.. there is one final experiment I have never performed. I have yet to use.. my miraculous ray.. upon a human subject. If I have calibrated my genetic accelerator accurately.. within seconds.. I shall become what man will be.. at the end of a million years !!”

High Evolutionary (later)

“It may have taken a slide down the evolutionary ladder to enable me to slough off my madness, but I am lucid once more. Furthermore, my perspective on both the Human race and my life’s work has been profoundly altered by the experience. I have been to both ends of Human evolution. I have known first-hand the humble origins of life on this sphere, as well as the ultimate genetic destiny of the Earth’s highest lifeform, Man. My encounter with the Beyonders has demonstrated to me that Mankind’s genetic destiny is not glorious enough. Left to our own natural path, we will never be the equal of the Beyonders. Thus, someone must guide the path of Man’s evolution and provide a catalyst to further our race’s genetic potential. This someone, of course, must be me. I hereby assume proprietorship of Man’s racial destiny. Under my guidance, the Human race will evolve further than the Beyonders, further than any other race of beings in existence! No matter what it takes, I shall not stop until Man reigns supreme in the universe !”

“I know only that there is now but one way to preserve the uncounted souls I have evolved on Counter-Earth one way to keep the World-Devourer from destroying my greatest creation : I must challenge Galactus to fight to the death - his life or mine !”

Equipment: Cyborg Exoskeleton [/DEX/ 08 /STR/ 10 /BODY/ 18 /MIND/ 18 /SPIRIT/ 18 INT 04 WILL 04 MIND 04, Acuity: 15, Invulnerability: 10, Regeneration: 10, Sealed Systems: 25, Advantage: Life Support (All), Bonus: Regeneration will bring back the armor-clad High Evolutionary even from beyond death (+5), but this rare ability is treated as a Catastrophic Marginal Power limitation. Notes: The Exoskeleton is designed to always and automatically protect the High Evolutionary against any perceived threat, including from himself ; it will force the High Evolutionary’s actions to self-defense, including free use of his powers, if he is under attack or to rebuild himself]

To evolve the High Evolutionary

Herbert Edgar Wyndham started life as a normal human being, but with a genius intellect and a fanatical interest in genetic science. The stats presented in the main body of this writeup represent the ’typical‘ High Evolutionary, when he is merely a couple fo hundred thousand years ahead farther along the evolutionary ladder than mainstream humanity. The ’typical‘ High Evolutionary is extremely advanced and powerful enough to create a planet from scratch and fill it with any type of desired life in a matter of months, as he did with Counter-Earth. There are two other important forms to keep in mind, the original, human Wyndham and the final, God-like Evolutionary.

In the beginning, long before Herbert Edgar Wyndham evolved himself all the way to the human end he was physically but a common man although with a genius intellect. During his early adventures, when he had just started to evolve animals, had just created an armor to protect himself against predators around the Wundagore area, and just started calling himself the High Evolutionary with his evolved animals, he had much lower stats. The stats below are to be used in his earliest possible adventures, and later stats will range all the way up to his current stats.

Furthermore, the High Evolutionary can, at any time, evolve himself into the final form of Man, which is a gigantic God-like, non-corporeal being with utterly alien psychology ; if he allows this change to occur, the Evolutionary will no longer care about anything but pure universal knowledge, leaving everything earthly behind at once, ceasing any activity he might have been involved in, and essentially becoming a new NPC until he, somehow, changes back to his normal, earlier physical form. The God-like High Evolutionary probably has powers in the range of Galactus with permanent Self Link (Spirit Travel) 25 active and is not even seen by most beings. In this state, he will roam around the universe seeking knowledge, until he finds reason to become corporeal again, or if he is somehow summoned back, at which point he returns into being the ’typical‘ High Evolutionary again.

Personality

Not even as a normal human was Wyndham interested in pursuing normal human relations. Apparently born a genius, he found a fanatical interest in genetic research early on, and the application of it into forced evolution. Decennia before his peers, he built his first evolutionary machine in the basement of his mother’s house and spent every waking hour in that lab. He cared little for that his mother sacrificed every penny and even the house to further his dreams; he appeared to take the completion of his ambitions for granted. He was very lucky in many ways, and received unique help along the way, but still took all of that for granted. With gained knowledge came further distancing form humanity. Philosophy about the way of life came much later after he had reached major successes.

Over the years, his character has thus varied between that of a weary, well-meaning creator to that of a mad scientist who is willing to do whatever is necessary to further his goals of evolving a better, less-brutal world. Although menacing during his maniacal phase, the Evolutionary’s history also contains more than one example of his desire to be responsible, creative, and kind. He is, by no means, a standard-fare villain, and has levels of sympathy and complexity to the character. The High Evolutionary has been manipulated by both the Beyonders and the Celestials, cosmic races that have interfered with human evolution in the past, indicating that his work might perhaps be a threat to their own. Even at his most unstable, the Evolutionary has never killed and has always demonstrated a paternal love toward even his most flawed creations.

At one point, he offered to (and did) restore the Savage Land after it was destroyed by Terminus. The Evolutionary has tried to teach his New Men the virtues of heroism, and played a key role in saving the Earth from Chthon. He has also served as a benevolent father figure to several Marvel characters, including Adam Warlock, Quicksilver, and Thor. Though made personally wealthy by uranium deposits, the Evolutionary has also provided for a generous financial trust for the people of Transia, ensuring economic stability for the nation. Of course, he now has access to the unlimited wealth of other worlds, such as the Counter-Earth. On several occasions he has gone to considerable lengths to protect young children, including the critically ill Jessica Drew, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, and Pietro’s daughter Luna.

A fanatical man of science, he originally did not believe in anything supernatural, but eventually accepted its existence as another form of science. Somewhere along the way, over the years, he lost much of his human feelings and ways, although he has always very deeply cared for his subjects. He usually plays the benevolent, yet distant, protector role, and believes it impossible that any of his creations would wish him ill.

He will pursue any action that grants him further knowledge about things he has not experienced or seen before. A major part of his psychological makeup, possibly from having lived most of his life alone with his subjects, he needs to convince himself that he is a God, because if he is not then he is absolutely nothing in the cosmic scheme of things. He can most often uphold this illusion and behaves like a benevolent paternal being to most humanoids. His only good friend was Dr. Jonathan Drew, who shared his interest in genetics, and with whom he could feel like a normal human being. His self-delusion, of being a God, will unravel if he faces beings much more powerful than he is, such as the Beyonders, and he will then turn utterly depressed and even suicidal, until he manages to evolve himself into another more balanced form.

The High Evolutionary’s evolutions, from a single cell to the ultimate of Mankind has left him with traumatic and profound experiences and psychological scars (some have theorized that his entire genetic makeup is unstable and leads to bouts of insanity and depression) and as a result his psychological makeup is less human than ever before. Considering the Beyonders’ aggressive pursuit of Counter-Earth from its earliest stages, and the subsequent destruction of the planet while under their care, some may speculate that the Evolutionary’s sanity was subtly undermined by these cosmic beings in order to prevent him from performing future experiments. His methods are utterly alien, his motives impossible to understand and his science beyond anybody’s understanding. Now, he only exists for bettering and evolving Mankind into the rulers of the universe (see Quote).